Otton Martin Nikodym was born August 13, 1887, in Zablotow, Poland. He was educated
at the Universities of Lwow and Warsaw, and the Sorbonne. Nikodym taught at the
Universities of Cracow and Warsaw and at the High Polytechnical School in Cracow. He
came to the United States in 1948 to join the faculty of Kenyon College. He retired
in 1966 and moved to Utica, N.Y., where he continued his research. Nikodym died in
1974.

Nikodym worked in a wide range of areas, but his best-known early work was his
contribution to the development of the Lebesque-Radon-Nikodym integral. His work in
measure theory led him to an interest in abstract Boolean lattices. His work after
coming to this country centered in the theory of operators in Hilbert space, based
on Boolean lattices, culminating in his The Mathematical Apparatus for
Quantum-Theories. He was also interested in mathematics teaching.

The papers contain notes and drafts for unpublished works on affine geometry, algebra
of fields, Fréchet and abstract Riemann integrals, measure theory, and logic;
together with notes, drafts, and proofs for several published works. Material used
in preparing volume 1 (published) and volume 2 (unpublished) of The Mathematical
Apparatus for Quantum-Theories is included. Volume II is virtually complete,
requiring final editing. There are notes for lectures and courses, and drafts of
textbooks on algebra and geometry. The collection includes Nikodym's bibliography
and reprints, together with his library (annotated) and reprint collection. Papers
are in English, French, Italian, and Polish. Correspondents include J.-L.
Destouches, N. Dunford, M. Fréchet, H. Hasse, V. Klee, G. Ludwig, C. Paue, and W.
Sierpinski. The papers, except for Nikodym's reprints, largely postdate his arrival
in the U.S. (1948). Material includes subject bibliographies, photographs, and
paintings by Stanislawa Nikodym of the Nikodyms' home in Gambier, Ohio, and of
European scenes.